Against the Giants: Liberation of Geoff

Party 1, Dragon 0

Session 57

After escaping from the Hill Giants’ Steading, the party spend a few days in a cave tending to their wounds; with a brief flying carpet excursion to Loftwick to purchase scrolls and potions, sell goods and buy supplies. They go through their loot and discover a map that seems to point to an abandoned temple where the giants were meant to investigate; believing something there might be useful in their fight against the giants, the party hike for several days into the mountains and come across a shaft that descends into what appears to be an abandoned dwarf temple.

Together with Mim (dwarf) and Hurin (the elf King) they climb down into the long tunnel, checking for traps along the way by a mixture of Corvin’s ability and Halmary’sFind Traps spell; they find an empty and disused dormitory, a collapsed section of the corridor that opens into a large cavern with the sound of fast-flowing water; missing flagstones with water 80’ below; and through a pair of dented, shredded iron doors is an old dwarf temple dedicated to Clangeddin Silverbeard, god of battle. They cautiously enter, spotting a pile of treasure heaped as if used as a bed– comments of ‘dragons’ are heard– and a couple of broken pillars. A statue of a dwarf, hand stretched out, stands at the back. Whilst the others stand guard or look for secret doors– the map indicates a magic hammer is to be found inside the temple complex– Corvin starts to go through the treasure, shovelling loot into their Bag of Holding, while Xellos casts Detect Secret Doors and finds one behind the statue.

Before anyone can investigate further, Sidni– guarding the entrance– spots a large (juvenile) blue dragon coming round the corner!

Ungrid quaffs a potion of growth and is bestowed a spell of resist fire by Halmary, and Hurin proves useful when he casts Haste on everyone; meanwhile the others move into cover. The dragon conjures up a pair of Mirror Images, which are quickly dispelled by an arrow from Corvin and a hail of Magic Missiles from Hurin. The dragon manages to let loose with a potent line of lightning, sizzling into Ungrid, who more or less shrugs off the burning and walks right up to the dragon, and slays it with a pair of well-placed thrusts!

Corvin loots the rest of the treasure, while Ungrid smashes open the secret door to reveal a room with another statue– holding an ornate and gold-plated warhammer– and a pair of chests. The chests turn out to be empty, the hammer looks nice and Ungrid pulls it free: causing the statue to animate and attack, but before it gets to swing its fist, Hurin pelts it with more Magic Missiles and turns it to slag. Mim spots a section of the wall that looks odd: turns out it is a thin layer of stone, a bricked up doorway. Ungrid smashes it with his giant-sized strength, revealing another chamber beyond…